Tales of IA
by pikatif
Summary: Since IA is my favourite Vocaloid, I decided to write this story focusing on her. It retells her story to fame, with friends, how she met the others, opinions, songs, live performances, and many other things! Please R&R, first real story.
1. Creation

**A/N So! This is the first chapter of Tales of IA, a story about my favourite Vocaloid, IA. Yeah, it might sound a bit weird, but I promise it's a cute story with lots of feels and friendship (and maybe just a few couples... uwu)**

 **Okay, so I ship Kaito/Miku, Len/Rin, Piko/Miki, Gakupo/Luka, and I think I ship IA with Yuma**

* * *

One ~ Creation

A white-haired girl around fifteen and a half with clear blue eyes blinked a few times, sitting up almost robotically from a pure white bed. At first she thought she was in a hospital, though she had no idea where she really was – not even her name. Two mysterious figures came into the room. They looked very official, wearing glasses and carrying ipads.

She blinked at them, then asked, "Who are you? Where am I?" Her voice sounded beautiful, but she took no notice as she was too confused to bother.

The taller man spoke, "You're a Vocaloid, a voice bank system created by the Japanese music company Yamaha. You are one of the most recent versions, a V3, but you are a completely new Vocaloid, unlike another Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku, who has been upgraded to V3 recently, too."

The other man laughed, "Oh! But I don't think this new voice will be anything near the others like Miku, Rin and Len, Gumi or Luka, though," the other man joined his laughter.

The girl felt like she should be offended, but since she had no idea who – or what, if indeed she was a mere android – they were talking about.  
The taller one spoke again, "Sorry about that, me and my partner were just joking; after all, who knows? Maybe you could become the next star," A mischievous glint in his eye told her that he wasn't joking.

* * *

Roughly five minutes had passed, but a lot was said in that time. The two businessmen had told her many things: about the most famous Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku; shown the girl her 'Box Art' – apparently she was meant to be gorgeous; told her about her voice range; how she was one of the lucky Vocaloids that got proper artists to do the voice sampling, a singer called Lia, famous for two anime openings ( _Tori no Uta_ and _My Soul, Your Beats!_ ); that last topic had finally led them to tell her what her name was: IA. As it turns out, she was named after her voice sampler and one of her test songs was _Tori no Uta_.

She spent the rest of her time in the room on the proper VOCALOID website, checking out her files and others like other V3s and Hatsune Miku's. Apparently there were six 'All-stars' who featured in these… 'Project DIVA' games for the PlayStation. The first – 01 – was Hatsune Miku, a sixteen-year old with turquoise pigtails, too big to be real; the second (and third, but by the looks of it they were counted as one person) were two fourteen-year olds named Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len. Instantly IA thought they were twins, with identical aqua eyes and bright yellow hair, but further research showed that they were actually mirror images (their name 'Kagami' means mirror in Japanese, and they're both referred to as 02). The fourth – named 03 – was a beautiful twenty-year old lady called Megurine Luka, who had light blue eyes and light pink hair; the fifth and sixth were Kaito and Meiko, the first Japanese Vocaloids, who were roughly 20-years old as well. Kaito had deep blue hair with matching eyes, whereas Meiko had short brown hair and reddish brown eyes.

IA figured out that they had things called 'character items' and sort-of theme colours. Miku's was a greenie-blue (mainly green), Rin's was a yellow, Len's was orange, Luka's was pink, Meiko's red and Kaito's blue. Miku's item was a leek (or 'negi' in Japanese), Rin's was an orange, Len's was a banana (THE FRUIT), Luka's was a fish, Meiko's was sake and Kaito's was ice cream.

Other famous Vocaloids were Gumi and Gakupo, who weren't part of the All-stars. Gumi had short, green hair with matching eyes, but her hair had two longer bits at the front sides which stuck out. At first IA almost mistook Gakupo for a girl, since he had long purple hair tied into a ponytail, wearing a samurai-kimono thingie – he honestly looked like a girl at first glance. Seriously. IA was so glad at that point she had amazing Box Art, along with a kick-ass costume. She couldn't wait until the next day to wear it, instead of the boring white dress she currently had to wear.

IA often wondered that day whether she could eat or sleep, have showers, even interact with other Vocaloids. –But what would she say to them? How could she even _begin_ to compare with stars like Miku and Gumi? That was when she started looking up other V3s, like CUL, MAiKA, and then she found someone she thought she could be friends with… A female Vocaloid named Yuzuki Yukari. Suddenly, IA felt very alone. Most Vocaloids had full names, like Kagamine Rin, Yuzuki Yukari, Megurine Luka, but she was just IA. Two simple English letters. She supposed it was kinda cool, but didn't have the same ring to it as Rin (no pun intended) or Gumi.

IA only realised it was night when the lights automatically turned off, as it was nine pm. The white-haired android stopped looking at things with her cyberbrain (though she really had to admit that was cool) and decided to sleep. She wondered if Vocaloids even needed rest…

* * *

 **A/N So how was it? Was it cringy? I suppose nothing much happened, but I always instantly think that IA and Yuka just click, like how you suppose Miku and Luka do. Yeah, it's kinda obvious she's gonna meet Yuka and they're gonna become friends – oh, and the Kagerou Project thingamajig is coming up, too, since I was planning for that to be the first time IA really meets the infamous Miku, lol. But I've been thinking… HOW THE HELL SHOULD SHE MEET THE KAGAMINES?!**


	2. Firsts

**A/N Can I just say thank you so much if you're reading this, especially to those who reviewed, Anisademongirl and The Police of Fanfiction 2016!**

* * *

Two ~ Firsts

IA woke up in a completely different costume. As most of it was black, she nearly screamed, thinking it was some dirt, but the shriek turned into a confused moan. Then another thought hit her: who the hell had changed her? If it was one of those men from before, she was going to sing so high-pitched she'd break their eardrums, literally. Then she remembered that she wasn't a proper human, so why shouldn't her clothes be digital too? A sudden flicker of white flashed in her eyes and her body started walking on its own towards the door, then down the corridor, then into another room, and so on.

Honestly? IA was expecting this. It's pretty cliché for a robot to be controlled into doing something, what she was more worried about was _why_ and _where_ and _who_. Because, if any of those answers were bad, it meant hell for her. The beautiful girl came to a stop in front of two fancy, futuristic doors with dark purple lines on them – maybe that was her colour. She looked left and right, shrugged, then opened the doors.

An array of (she guessed) VIPs in holograms were arranged on the seats in front of her, arranged around a curving table, and she felt like she was witnessing the special FX of a sci-fi film. –Another thing that confused her were these artificial memories of general things, but she was more focused on the piercing stares at her as one of the men stood up. IA recognised him – he was the taller man from yesterday.

He coughed before announcing, "This is the latest Vocaloid for VOCALOID3, a teenage girl with a famous voice provider designed to have a realistic, fluent, and confident voice – she could potentially become a star like the CVs or Gumi."

A woman with a criticising look in her eyes spoke next, "Tell her to sing us a song. Don't force her, we need to know if she's as willing as the most popular ones were."

The man from before nodded at her, then tapped at his ipad. IA felt a sudden bling in her cyberbrain. She checked it – there were lyrics and notes to one of her supposed test songs – _Tori no Uta_. She felt a little less unique singing a cover, but at least it was a nice song that complemented her voice well… On second thoughts, they only chose it because her voice was practically the same as the singer's. She wondered if that was somehow cheating, however she sang the words anyway.

Surprisingly, the song sounded much more human to her than she thought, flowing gently and hitting the notes perfectly. Although she knew she wasn't the best at hitting the middle notes, the song suited her so she found no troubles singing it. When the music stopped, all of the holograms applauded, a big smile on the man who IA guessed was in charge of her – she decided to now refer to him as 'Boss'. The holograms suddenly zipped away, the room now quiet again.

IA blinked a few times. Could other Vocaloids sing like that? She decided to look up a few famous songs on her way back. Not surprisingly, most of them were by Miku. Things like _Love is War, World is Mine, Romeo and Cinderella, MELT, Ievan Polkka, Tell Your World_ and _The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku_ seemed to be a few that came up straight away, others being ones like _Meltdown_ by Rin, _Matryoshka_ by Miku and Gumi, _Just be Friends_ by Luka, _Double Lariat_ by Luka, _Donut Hole_ by Gumi, _Tokyo Teddy Bear_ by Rin, _Mozaik Role_ by Gumi, _HAPPY SYNTHESIZER_ by Gumi and Luka, _Joker_ by Gakupo, a song series called the _Story of Evil_ by Rin and Len, _iNSaNiTY_ by a Vocaloid called SF-A2 Miki and Kaito, _magnet_ by Miku and Luka, _Cantarella_ by Kaito, _Remote Control_ by Rin and Len, _SPICE!_ by Len, _Poker Face_ by Gumi, _Kokoro_ by Rin, _Circus Monster_ by Luka, and many others.

IA looked at the list and felt very small compared to them. She listened to a few that sounded cool to her, and was amazed with almost every single one she listened to. Although some had very, err, _adult_ lyrics, to say it safely. A few others she found were quite gory or sad, such as the _Story of Evil_ (consisting of the famous songs _Daughter of Evil_ by Rin and _Servant of Evil_ by Len, as well as many others), _Circus Monster_ and _iNSaNiTY_. IA liked the part in that song where she asked what exactly sanity _was_ , then switched back to singing the chorus about insanity.

A sudden urge to look at top tens that every human (yes, everyone must admit it) had gnawed at IA's insides, before she searched 'top Vocaloid songs' into the taskbar. She looked at a fifteen minute video that showed this person's top 20 songs. **(Of course this is my list, minus the IA songs :'()** This person seemed to like some of the less famous songs and give credit to them, as well as covers that must've been better than the originals. The list included (in order from first to last) _Two Breaths Walking_ by Miku, _Servant of Evil_ by Len, _iNSaNiTY_ by Miki and Kaito, _Mozaik Role_ by Gumi, _Double Lariat_ by Luka, _magnet_ by Rin and Len, _Tokyo Teddy Bear_ by Rin, _Cantarella_ by Kaito, _Dream-Eating Monochrome Baku_ by Len, _glow_ by Miku, _Just be Friends_ by Luka, _Circus Monster_ by CUL, and _Romeo and Cinderella_ by Miku.

IA listened to a few she hadn't heard of before, and decided that it was a pretty good list – if only she could make her way onto it somehow… That was when she first decided to become a superstar like Miku.

* * *

The next day she was introduced to her very own virtual home, similar to other Vocaloids', she supposed. It had a white, electric blue and dark purple theme to it. IA felt like a massive upgrade had been given to her, as she was now also given extra types of clothes for artists that might like to use her in the future. Apparently she was allowed to go out and visit other Vocaloids if she wanted to, Boss gave her permission. The white-haired singer sighed at the wide open space that was her room – did Vocaloids get paid? She made sure she wasn't in too bad shape before going out, she wanted to make a few friends and figure out what each of the Vocaloids were really like, particularly that Yuzuki Yukari girl she found online.

Apparently every Vocaloid created lived under the same roof, but it was definitely a big one. IA was sure she got lost about four times on the trip – but to where exactly? She didn't really know, just wanted to find someone she recognised and find out more about them.

But if she did and it was either a boy or Miku, what the hell would IA say?! "I'm a newbie and a big fan so I really wanted to meet you and now I'm here and I'm like OMG" –she obviously wouldn't say that, because it sounds really dumb, but what she'd say probably wouldn't be far off.

She was too busy cringing at the embarrassing scenes playing out in her head to notice what was in front of her – a wall? Worse. Miku? Less than that. IA bumped into a blonde furiously smashing the screen of her phone.

"Hey! Watch it, Te- uh, who're you?" She blinked at IA, IA blinked back.  
"You're not a UTAUloid, are ya? I didn't know we were getting one as pretty as you, though."

Her voice reminded IA of someone, and then she remembered. This girl sounded like a weird mix of Miku and Rin's voices, but it worked – somehow it actually worked.

The white-haired Vocaloid remembered what the blonde had said before, "Hey, uh, what's a UTAUloid? I'm sorry, I was only just created a few days ago, I don't know much yet."

"Huh?" Was all the blonde could get out before a microphone was thrown at her with terrifying speed; another squeaky, robotic voice followed.

"OI! NERU! STOP TEASING THE NEWBIES!"

 _Neru, so that's her name,_ IA thought, wondering who the new voice belonged to. A dark-pink-haired girl stomped out from the door of another room – she looked roughly the same age as IA – she had her hair done up in curled pigtails, but they were much shorter than Miku's.

She abruptly turned to the Vocaloid, "Hi, sorry about all this, Neru's a bit thick when it comes to manners,"

"Hey! Teto, I am _so_ gonna kill you!"

"-But she's a nice girl, really. Hey, you're the new V3, aren't ya? IA or somethin' like that, right?" IA blinked at her, before replying hesitantly.

"Yeah, I'm called IA. Would you mind explaining to me what these UTAUloids are, Teto, was it?"

"Ah! Yeah, we're sorta similar to Vocaloids, but instead of having voices actually in us, we have to have voices imported onto us, like a programmer's voice or another Vocaloid's voice, tweaked a bit. I usually get a random person's and Neru usually gets either Miku's or Rin's a bit more high-pitched. Then our friend Haku's still in the room recovering from a hangover – she and Meiko just click, ya know what I mean?" She giggled, IA feeling like she should join in too. She spent the rest of that night with the three UTAUloids, chatting about songs and singing voices.

IA sang _Tori no Uta_ again, since it was the only song she was allowed to sing freely at the moment, whereas the others sang their songs full on. Neru sang a catchy tune called _Stop Nagging Me!_ but Teto definitely had more songs, as she sang _FIRST_ , _FUKKIRETA_ and _Kasane Territory_. Since Haku was a little off, they showed IA a video of one of her best songs, _Daughter of White_ , apparently the _Story of Evil_ told from Haku's point of view. Neru also suggested they watch a song in which they featured in the video (well, apart from Haku, but she was still sleeping, so…) it was called _Triple Baka_ and was sung by Miku. IA laughed at parts, like how Teto robotically mouthed the background singer's music and Neru's tapping at her phone was the music.

Eventually, IA had to leave, however much she wanted to have a sleepover or something. Something told her there was going to be some important stuff happening the next day, though, so she walked back to her room, thankfully not getting lost in the labyrinth of corridors and stairs. A surprise welcomed her when she came to her room though. When the lights automatically turned on, a pair of aqua eyes stared at her from under her bed.

"Um… hi?"

IA grabbed the nearest thing that could be used as a weapon.

* * *

 **A/N Muahahaha I have an evil way of IA meeting the Kagamines… What? Seriously, aqua eyes, have ya not guessed yet?! Okay, I definitely DO NOT ship it, but I decided it would be funnier if it was Len. You'll find out why he's there next chap tho, so wait and see… *evil face* But in the list my other favourites were ones with IA in, like _Outer Science, A Tale of Six Trillion Years and a Night, daze_ (by IA ROCKS), _Dialing Paranoia_ and _Pomp and Circumstance._ Plus, here's the link to my fave song:  watch?v=i9d1KcJe5c4 (original PV)  watch?v=cv34h1rvIS0 (PDA video, 60fps)  .jp/watch/sm9150606 (Original PV, but on NND) Oh, and I didn't include any songs that weren't around at that time (beginning of 2012) so no Senbonzakura or Karakuri Burst.**


	3. Kagamine

**A/N Thanks to those others who reviewed - devil or angle and Vocaloidlover - for your generous reviews! Here's the next chapter with the infamous Kagamines!**

 **WARNING: This includes Len/Rin (mainly in IA's POV)**

* * *

Three ~ Kagamine

"Who the hell are you?!"

"I could say the same to you! I thought this room was vacant!"

"By 'who the hell are you,' I really meant: why are you here, pervert?"

"Gah! I am _not_ a perv!" IA's eye twitched. If the little bugger didn't come out sooner or later… She didn't have to finish that sentence as he squeezed out from under the bed. More light revealed blonde, spiky hair and a childish face. Oops. IA really shouldn't have threatened _him_. She bowed instantly, "Sorry! I couldn't see it was you!"

"Uh…"

"Aren't you Kagamine Len?"

"Oh! Yeah, sorry, sometimes when you're meant to be fourteen you forget you're famous." IA stared at him, unimpressed. He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze – after all, she was meant to be older than him, wasn't she? She grinned on the inside, it was kinda fun tormenting a guy.

She came out with a very important question, "So what _were_ you doing hiding under my bed?"

"I was playing a game."

IA's jaw dropped. What _was_ he playing, then?! Hide and Seek?! …Or was it a more pervy game? OH FOR GOD SAKE HE WAS FOURTEEN, TOO OLD FOR HIDE AND SEEK AND TOO YOUNG FOR _THAT_ EITHER!

...

IA just said that out loud.

...

Len's eye twitched, and he stuck a finger out towards her with a crooked grin, as if he was trying his hardest not to offend her, "If you've listened to _SPICE!_ I can tell you that was a dare to agree to it, and Rin would've killed me if I ruined our supposed 'reputation', okay?" IA winced, feeling like she was a little kid being scolded. "Oh, and for your information, I only came here for some peace and quiet away from those devils called _Miku_ and _Rin_ , with my _3DS_ , which is why I said I was playing a _game_." He groaned, seemingly fed up of having to explain himself.

"Oh." Was all IA could get out. She opened the door again, trying to tell him to get out, but then paused. Maybe she could ask him to take her to Rin and Miku…

"You've got one of those smiles Miku has when she has a plan. That's not a good thing."

"I was wondering if you could take me to meet your friends," IA smiled as best she could, Len giving her the same stare she gave him before: uninterested.

"Who said those devils were my friends?" he slumped onto her bed and resumed his game. - _Her_ bed. IA began to stomp over to him, but he spoke first, "Hey, you're that new girl, aren't you? IA."

"Um, yes, why does everyone know that?"

"Probably because you're meant to be the new star, with your flowing voice and looks and all that same rubbish. But your voice does sound good." IA got the feeling he was being, was it bitchy (?), at her for some reason, like he was jealous. That was when the white-haired singer remembered what one of the UTAUloids had told her last night:

" _Poor Luka, Rin and Len, they don't get V3s like Miku or Kaito. –Luka doesn't even have an Append yet! Hopefully the three of them get V4s or the fans aren't gonna be happy_."

IA suddenly felt very sorry for Len, but more so for Luka. Then again, Luka has a built-in English system at least. Apparently, Neru had told her, they were planning an English voice bank for Miku, too.

"Sorry, but I probably won't get as famous as you or the others, you know."

He sighed, "It's fine, I can take you to meet Rin and Miku, though, if you still want."

"-You mean the _devils_ , right?"

"Right," They laughed before heading towards the All-stars' rooms.

* * *

Fortunately, IA wasn't alone, because she would've taken all the wrong turns and staircases. Orienteering probably wasn't a strong point of her programming, if you didn't count 'Following like a Sheep' as an orienteering skill. They stopped at a door with yellow lines on it, the same patterns as on IA's, just different colours. Len knocked on the door a few times, a squeaky voice coming from within, "What's the password~?"

Len sighed, a look of dread on his face. IA stepped away not to get in the way of anything.

"Rin, do you seriously have to force everyone to do this? It's so easy, anyway. Plus it annoys Miku like hell."

"Well, live with it! Ahem, _who's the best singer in the world?_ "

"…You," IA rubbed her eyes. Was that a… a-a _blush_ on his cheeks?! She stared into space for a minute, many thoughts rushing through her cyberbrain, doing a quick search of Len x Rin on Google Images…

"Who's the girl staring off into space?" IA finally snapped out of it and turned to face Rin. She was so… _cute!_ IA felt like squeezing her in a half-hug-half-stranglehold, like they do in anime, but fortunately restrained herself. It didn't look like Miku was there anymore, and her hopes dropped slightly, but! This was probably better, since she got to meet Rin and Len _alone_ (better for more reasons than one).

"I-I'm IA! I was only created a few days ago, sorry it's late, I just found a random person under my bed and then I found out it was Len and then asked if I could meet you as well and, um…" _Great, I'm doing exactly what I said I wouldn't do!_ She cringed at her own cringiness, wishing someone else would speak for her.

"She was hoping to meet Miku too, but thankfully she's left," _Wait, thankfully how?!_ Ever since that moment before, IA's mind had been plagued by dirty thoughts. Just great.

"Yeah, well, we don't want her trying to sing _Sweet Devil_ to a newbie, right?"

"Of course not!" They laughed, IA feeling like she should know the song. Rin realised her confusion, and explained to her, "It's one of Miku's more famous songs; it's about a girl who's obsessed about her looks and wants to impress her lover, being quite possessive too. The main part of the chorus is the part where she sings in English " _Do you love Sweet Devil?_ " which, obviously, became quite catchy because of its robotic style too."

"Oh, I get it now. It probably has some adult bits too, right?"

"I suppose…" Rin changed the subject, obviously not wanting to focus on Miku too much anymore, since she always hogs all the attention, "Hey, what songs with us in have you listened to, IA?"

"Let's see… _Remote Control, Daughter of Evil, Servant of Evil, Tokyo Teddy Bear, Meltdown, Dream-Eating Monochrome Baku_ , your cover of _magnet_ , _Kokoro_ and… um, and _SPICE!_."

Rin laughed right out when IA mumbled the last one, "That's a mistake all the newbies make! Ha, Len, ya do know I wouldn't have actually been too mad if you declined, right?" She continued laughing whilst Len glared at her, IA feeling a bit left out of their special connection. Len changed the subject again, "Have you listened to one called _Gekokujou_ yet? You might know it as _Revolution_."

"Oh yeah! That one was sooo fun, wasn't it!?"

"Meh, not as fun as when we killed Miku in _trick and treat_ ," IA felt even more confused than before, so Rin and Len sang the songs.

 _Gekokujou_ was quite an upbeat song, with a little humour, the main line being: _Green is the enemy!_ It was a story about Rin and Len trying to become more famous than Miku, declaring war against her and her genderbend, Mikuo. Apparently, Neru was meant to be on their side, too.

-Though _trick and treat_ was a completely different story, where Rin and Len were dolls that Miku once owned, but as she grew up, she forgot about them and replaced them with a Luka doll. Rin and Len got angry and their anger led them to becoming human for a night in order to get their revenge on Miku. At first they 'treated' her with tea and kind words, welcoming her, but then they 'tricked' her, sending her memories of what she did to them and what would happen to her if she didn't do as they said. However, she still died; her heart – resembled by a flower – was ripped off at the end, Rin and Len now dolls again having fulfilled their job.

Both songs were amazing, and IA clapped for each of them, but it was practically dawn and she felt she needed charging (a Vocaloid's bed is like their charger). Rin and Len waved her goodbye, hoping she would share some of her songs with them the next time she came around. IA desperately tried not to think about what they'd be doing now, just the two of them… OH GOD THEY WERE MEANT TO BE FOURTEEN, IA SERIOUSLY HAD TO STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS STUFF! Luckily she had remembered the way and arrived safely at her room, this time with no teenage boys hiding under her bed.

* * *

 **A/N I did say I didn't ship Len/IA, I obviously ship Len/Rin, like, duh, do you _know_ me? Probably not, but, yeah. I was thinking of putting Yuma/IA into this, but Im not sure who I ship him with… It could be Yuma/Gumi or Yuma/IA, but I think the latter would work better because they have similar colours that would contrast nicely. I KNOW, I'M WEIRD but like Rin says, _live with it!_ Oh yeah, I do like _Gekokujou_ but there are so many songs it's not in my top 30. WE HAVE A TIME SKIP NEXT TIME! BWAHAHA!**


	4. Kagerou

**A/N Since I'm feeling generous, I'll post the next chapter too \\(_)/ - What u look like right now XD And if you can live with my weirdness and are still reading this, I congratulate you! Because I never thought anybody would actually read this! (mainly cos of the ships, but it won't just be R &L I promise!)**

 **Oh, and I try to keep as close to real-life events as possible, so don't shout if I've got some facts wrong uwu**

* * *

Four ~ Kagerou

A few weeks had passed since the day IA had met the Kagamines, and she was still thinking about _that_ stuff, however hard she tried to forget. Most of her time since then had been learning how to self-tune and when to strain her voice when her programmers did something to make it sound better. Apparently it's what made programmers pick certain Vocaloids, along with the nature of their voice. After days on end practising vocals and scales, as well as different singing styles (not easy to do when you're an android) the Boss finally gave her the all-clear to start working on songs for different projects.

IA startled when she received many blipping emails in her cyberbrain the next morning. She spent half the day reading them all and trying to make sense of them. Apparently she was going to feature in two new confirmed projects: the Kagerou Project and IA Project. There were various artists contributing to the IA Project but only one to the Kagerou Project – his name was JIN, sometimes called Shizen no Teki-P. _Weird name, yet kinda cool,_ IA thought, seemingly staring into space to someone who didn't know she was a Vocaloid, since her emails were sent straight to her cyberbrain and could be viewed without projecting them onto anything.

IA decided to pick something presentable to wear, as she intended to make a good first impression. She found a light blue dress and a red bow hidden in the back of her wardrobe – she never remembered seeing _them_ before. She decided to wear it as a change to her usual black, white and pink colour scheme. She looked in the mirror, instantly thinking it was so kawaii. –Though she had to be careful about when and where she used that word, as her friends had told her not to say it around Miku too much, as the superstar thought of it as her word alone. Silly, yes, but IA had never met the green-haired singer, so what could she say?

It was kind of funny, actually; IA had met most of the Vocaloids, and some UTAUloids, just not Miku. The white-haired Vocaloid followed the directions to the studio where she'd meet this JIN person, practising her vocals on the way. She'd gotten used to the enormous building housing many of her kind, but still didn't know where _everyone_ lived. –Plus loads of Vocaloids had to switch rooms for personal reasons, like the creators didn't want enemies to duel all the time, or they didn't want certain ones to become too… IA decided to replace what she was going to say with _close_ – as in Rin and Len close.

...Yeah, IA must've been built with a dirty cyberbrain.

* * *

IA came to an abrupt stop as she reached the door of the supposed studio where she was to meet with this person, initially to check it was the right place, but when she looked at the door it had dark purple marks – her colour, of course – but it also had turquoise. Her eyes widened even more when she heard a high-pitched voice laugh inside the room. The voice was unmistakable. IA hesitantly opened the door and almost fainted when she saw a pair of green pigtails; she wished she'd chosen better clothes than the boring normal dress she was wearing.

"Oh! You must be IA, I've heard loads about you from Rin and Len! I don't think we've actually met yet, but you must know I'm Hatsune Miku." Miku smiled a genuine smile, the complete opposite of what rumours IA had heard about her and what she'd expected her to be – then again most of what she believed about Miku was influenced by the Kagamines, so…

"SeeU got your tongue? Come on, I'm not that big a deal that ya have to act all dumbstruck!" She shook her head exasperatedly, IA now confused instead of shocked: who the hell was SeeU and why did Miku use it in that phrase instead of 'cat'?

"Ohhhhh… You haven't met SeeU yet, have you? She's a Korean V3 who has cat ears, so I thought it would be funny to use that instead of cat,"

"No, it's fine, I was just shocked because-"

"-Because most of the stuff you've heard about me was from the Kagamines – they warned me, heh-heh," She made a dead-pan face that looked like it'd had a lot of practise.

There was a man in the room as well, IA guessed he was JIN. He was wearing casual clothes, as was Miku, who was wearing a jumper with really long sleeves, which hung over her hands cutely, an indigo miniskirt and black and blue leg warmers that changed into boots as they got closer to her feet. JIN seemed to be looking at both of the Vocaloids' costumes intently, as if he was on the brink of having an idea, which was confirmed when he stated that their costumes gave him an idea for two of the characters in the Kagerou Project. **(A/N Marie and Ene, since whenever I can't help but think of IA and Miku)**

IA soon figured out that she and Miku wouldn't exactly be shown in the Kagerou Project, they'd just sing the songs. A little while after she'd met the Kagamines, Boss gave IA a few new privileges, like accessing further information in her cyberbrain as well as being able to sing a few more songs, her cyberbrain being updated every time a new song came on Nico Nico Douga (NND) or YouTube (YT), the most recent being one by kemu called 'A Tale of Six Trillion Years and a Night'. Personally, IA thought that song was a real killer and could become very popular. JIN asked the two to sing a song of their own choice and, since IA was fed up of singing _Tori no Uta_ , she sang _A Tale of Six Trillion Years and a Night_. Miku sang _Love is War_ , a classic J-rock Vocaloid original by ryo (supercell) and Miku. IA thought of a lot of other songs the superstar could have sung that were better, but something told her that not choosing to sing _Tori no Uta_ was a good choice, as she had a feeling JIN preferred rock over slow, rhythmic songs.

JIN seemed very pleased with each of the Vocaloids, as he'd done his research and was expecting this – apparently. One thing he wasn't expecting, though, was just how good IA's voice could suit his style. He admitted that he'd originally wanted to try Gumi or Luka, but had read IA's page and wanted to try her out; he also admitted that he did indeed like IA's voice better than Miku's. –Miku seemed a little down at that, but before she had perked up at the fact that Rin and Len's names had been missed out. However, she perked up again when JIN said that he was planning the first song of the series to be sung by Miku, the second sung by IA.

The rest of the day was mostly JIN and Miku practising the song, whilst IA watched and brainstormed ideas for lyrics to the next song. The second song was meant to be about a character who had this strange ability to draw everyone's attention. _Her name's Momo Kisaragi, and the song's about unwanted attention… I've got it! The song shall be called Kisaragi Attention!_ IA sprinted out of her seat towards JIN and Miku, despite the fact they were in the middle of practising, and let the words flow out of her mouth excitedly, as if she were a girl on her birthday morning. JIN approved the idea and let Miku add some parts to the lyrics – after all, she had half a decade's more experience than IA.

The day ended with two exhausted Vocaloids and one pushy master. Miku had nearly perfected singing _Jinzou Enemy_ , the first song of the series, and IA had been experimenting with different variations of the tune and lyrics to _Kisaragi Attention_ , wishing she could have more of Miku's help. As they walked back to their rooms, IA found that she and Miku must live in close quarters, as they ended up walking in the same direction. IA was expecting her to take a left turn at one point towards Rin and Len's rooms, but she stayed true to her path.

 _I guess she doesn't live near the other CVs, then…  
_

IA spotted a black hood with purple hair sticking out heading towards a door with slightly lighter purple lines than IA's, and the white-haired vocalist lit up with excitement, "Yukari?"

"Huh? Is that you, IA?"

"Oh, so you know Yuka-chan, IA?" Miku wondered, IA nodded with a smile. She'd only just befriended her fellow V3 a week ago, but they seemed to just click – sort of like Rin and Gumi or Miku and Luka, though not quite as, err, intimate, as Rin and Len. –No, the two had NOT done a cover of _magnet_ yet!

Yukari walked up to the other two Vocaloids and began having a casual chat with them, "So, you finally met Miku, ne? She's not what you first think or what the Kagamines tell you," Miku giggled at that.

"Yeah, those two can be real cheeky sometimes! Most of the time I have to threaten to tell Luka about their trouble-making, but once I even mention her name they recoil – it's really quite funny, actually."

"Yeah, I can imagine that," They both laughed, leaving IA with that same feeling that she should know what Luka was like. They quickly explained that Luka could be really aggressive and angry when it came to it – she was 'a true anime lady' they had said.

After a few more minutes of idly chatting, Miku yawned, sensing that she needed to charge, which was when IA also felt a sudden dimness around her – like a computer screen going dark because of low battery. Miku and IA waved Yukari goodbye, but Yukari managed to hastily whisper a word of warning in her friend's ear.

"Miku isn't exactly what her first impression gives off, either, so I'd watch out if I were you," Those words left a chill in IA's body.

IA went the rest of the way without speaking to Miku once.

* * *

 **A/N Ooh, getting tense, eh~? Yeah, well, ALL WILL BE CLEAR BY NEXT TIME! Plus I kinda focus on IA a bit more next time rather than the Kagamines or Miku. Oh, don't worry, the story of Yuka and IA will be clear soon, I was just too lazy before XD Finally, the songs in the Kagerou Project will go in the order that they are in the manga, since I don't really watch much of the anime eh-heh (-.-)**


	5. Fame

**A/N Gah! I didn't realise it'd been this long since I last posted a chapter! So here's the next one~**

 **BTW THERE WILL BE QUITE A LOT OF OOCNESS IN THIS SERIES. But Vocaloid is kinda crack anyways, so whatever :P**

 **Enjoy~**

* * *

Five ~ Fame

A month had passed since Yukari's words had left a scar in IA's sanity. Miku seemed pretty fine when they were practising songs with JIN, she even seemed fine when IA caught her hanging out with the other CVs – that was when she'd first met the (apparently) 'beautiful, suave, sexy, bilingual' Luka. –No, seriously, that's what she was _officially_ described as! And back to the point, IA was practising the latest song in the Kagerou Project called _Yuukei Yesterday_ (about a tsundere girl who felt she was falling for her best friend) when the rising star heard a beep in her cyberbrain. She'd received an email from her creators' company, called 1st Place, saying something about planning a new voice bank for her already. Yes, in the first few months after IA's release, many of her songs reached 1,000,000+ views on NND and she was getting more famous in the west as well, but a new voice bank?! Was she even ready? But then again, creating new voice banks takes roughly two years at least, and she'd be ready by then, wouldn't she?

Apparently they were still brainstorming ideas, but the main goal was to give IA a more breathy, clear and high-tempo (even though she already had the highest tempo of all Vocaloids so far) voice that suited rock songs perfectly. IA blinked at the email and re-read it a few times. The name: IA ROCKS. They planned for it to be released summer 2014. IA never imagined she'd get this much credit so early on, and she was slightly scared. Her first thought was to ask Miku about what it was like to be famous, but Yukari's words still frightened her. She shook her head: she needed to do this. Maybe she could've misheard her best friend, or she could've misunderstood the meaning behind it. Anyhow, she was going to confront Miku!

…After consulting the Kagamines and Yukari.

IA asked Rin, Len and Yukari to come over to her place ASAP via the cybernet (she literally just made that name up, but it was basically texting through her cyberbrain to the other Vocaloids). Yuka was the first to come, followed by a confused pair of blondes. Well, IA did suppose she'd called a little suddenly, but she'd been a little jumpy and unsure ever since she'd met Miku, so she thought it was best to seek wisdom from more experienced Vocaloids (even though Yukari only had a few more months' experience than IA). Yukari was the first to actually ask what was going on, IA replying with a very rushed answer.

"So… You asked us to come just because you were scared of talking to Miku?" Rin asked in an are-you-serious tone of voice. Len continued, "We are still talking about _Hatsune_ Miku, right? Not some fanmade counterpart, right?"

"IA, is this about what I said to you that other day?"

"Well, it's been nagging at me…" The three stared at her. Yukari quickly explained what she'd said to IA before, Rin and Len now getting the picture. A strange smirk spread across their faces after a second, Yukari openly wondering to IA, "Why did you even bring these two troublemakers along? Well, I could understand just Rin, but why Len too?"

"Gah! It's not like that, it's just I forgot they were actually two separate people – they have the same email!"

"Yeah… that gets annoying sometimes," the Kagamines dead-panned.

* * *

After sorting out what IA's problems were, the other three came to a simple conclusion. –No, it **WAS NOT** IA having a crush on Miku! That certainly _wasn't_ true. They came to a conclusion that one: it would be more fun not to explain what Yukari meant and to let IA figure out for herself; and two: IA just needed to speak to Miku privately and sort things out. Now came the hard part, getting them alone together. Miku's schedule was full up most of the time, but Yukari pointed out that the two had practise sessions on the Kagerou Project together – " _Well, obviously!_ " The purple-haired V3 had stated whilst sighing at Rin and Len's dumbfounded faces. So, the next day when IA set out for the same studio she went to at 10:00am every weekday to practise songs with Miku and JIN, she didn't practise vocals or lyrics as she walked, she practised casual conversation phrases. Yep, totally not weird. Well, nothing's weird when you're a Vocaloid – at least that's what Luka had told IA when they'd briefly met.

IA sang Yuukei Yesterday whilst Miku tried to come up with a catchy tune that could potentially become her next song, since the next song in the series was set to be sung by IA. After an hour they had their mid-way break: this was IA's chance. The white-haired singer moved to sit beside Miku.

"Strange, you usually keep your distance," Miku raised an eyebrow, IA fumbling around for a reply.

"Uh, well, you see… I just wanted to have a chat. Like, um, what's your personal favourite song that you've sung?"

"Ooh, good question! Hmm… I like _World is Mine_ but I like a lot of others too… I suppose songs like _The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku_ and _shake it!_ are fun to sing too, though. Oh, and one of my recent hits, _Romeo and Cinderella_."

"Yeah, I think I've heard that recent one," IA paused, remembering the lyrics with a blush. "Um, the lyrics are a bit rude, though, aren't they?"

"Meh, makes the song more popular. And you?"

"Huh?! Oh, well… I don't really have that many songs so far, but I quite like _A Tale of Six Trillion Years and a Night_. Hey, I've got a good question, what's your favourite song that's not sung by you?"

"Ooh, goodie," Miku looked unnaturally devilish for a moment… but somehow that seemed more like she was being herself. "I really like Rin and Len's _Story of Evil_ , but I like their cover of _magnet_ , too…"

"Wow, even though it's your own song?" IA was missing the obvious clue Miku had spilled. Miku rolled her eyes, slapping her hand to her face whilst sighing.

"Haven't you noticed, IA? It's pretty obvious, what with the 'password' and all," IA's eyes widened: so it really was a thing! Wait, why would _Miku_ of all people be interested in ships?!

"Eh-heh-heh, well, ya see… I'm kind of a closet otaku." Miku made a sort of half embarrassed, half proud face. IA stared at her for a second.

...That second turned into a minute of awkward silence.

IA had always thought of Rin and Len as the otakus, being geeky gamers and loving anime/manga and all. Well, surprise, surprise, Miku was in on the secret too. IA had heard of anime and manga before but had never really watched or read any. She'd once played games with the Kagamines and Yukari (Yukari was a gamer/hacker – but don't tell anyone the latter!) but had never gotten obsessed with them. That might just be because she hadn't had much experience, though, so she vowed to try it again sometime – as well as watching some anime.

Miku seemed to see straight through IA into her cyberbrain and grinned demonically, **_"_** ** _Welcome to the dark side, my new best bud…"_**

* * *

 **A/N OMG I MADE MIKU SO CREEPY AT THE END! This depiction of Miku is based off me, to be honest, but since Miku is basically an all-rounder I'll show her other sides too throughout this fanfic XD And if you didn't know, an otaku is someone who is obsessed with Japan/originally Japanese games/anime/manga/merchandise/other things like Vocaloid, etc… So yeah. An otaku is the word to describe me XP**


	6. Gumi

**A/N Seriously sorry guys! I haven't been able to go on for a while now and probably won't update regularly again until late June/July because of exams. But don't worry! I am not dead! And neither is Tales of IA and IA's super kawaii-ness! (that just sounds weird... I'll shut up now ^^)**

* * *

Six ~ Gumi

Another month had passed, filled with news that IA's promotions would start soon, getting to know other Vocaloids better, being forced to become an otaku (by three certain _devils_ ), working on the Kagerou Project, and then there came this. Apparently, the famous Vocaloid Gumi (who IA hadn't personally met but had heard of) had her birthday on the 26th of June, and it was the 25th. _Wow, I can't believe the others didn't tell me sooner_ , IA had thought that morning when Miku and Rin came literally dragging her to Luka's room to make last-minute preparations. There were two unfamiliar faces in the room, one with blue hair, the other with brown. The rest were Vocaloids she knew: Luka, Rin, Len, Yukari, Miku, and her, of course; there were even some UTAUloids: Neru, Teto, and IA guessed that the tall, busty, white-haired one was Haku. Haku and the brown-haired lady seemed to be having a very, err, IA guessed the words they were suing should be described as mature, but, um – you get the picture! The blue-haired one was a man, who Miku ran straight towards excitedly after she and Rin had plopped IA on the floor. The rising star didn't feel too famous that day, she felt absolutely exasperated.

At least Yukari was there, so IA had someone _sane_ to talk to. Well, that was her initial thought, until she realised that Luka had a games console in her room, currently occupied by four ferociously fighting gamers: two were obvious, one was Teto and the last was Yukari – who seemed to be winning, surprisingly (no offense) against the Kagamines. IA sweat-dropped before a certain suave Vocaloid came up to her.

"So, how's your life going, IA? It's been a while since we last met, ne?"

"Ah, Luka-senpai!" IA always felt like calling Luka 'senpai' since she was more experienced and much more polished, like she was meant for her job – the complete opposite of the likes of Miku, Rin and Len, it was hard to believe they were all CVs.

"Yes, it has been a while. So, who's the brunette and who's the guy Miku's fawning over?" The way Miku looked at that man was way more obvious than Rin and Len, it was almost sickening to see it.

Luka chuckled, "Well, the guy's Kaito – and he's an idiot, so he probably hasn't noticed a certain teal-haired girl, whilst the other is a very… shall I say _confident_ woman who likes to hang out with Haku – you have met Haku, haven't you?"

"I hear she's a bit of a drunkard."

"Yeah, well, that's Meiko and Haku for you, they just click – kind of like you and Yukari, actually."

"What?! You think me and Yuka really suit each other that well?"

"Hm, well, at least your friendship isn't as intimate as the Kagamines," they both couldn't help but laugh at that, when suddenly the door burst open.

A redhead with an unrealistic curl in her hair shouted an enormous greeting, followed by the mumble of a boy behind her. IA thought she heard Len sarcastically mumble: "Well, we know the psycho's here," which left IA puzzled for what seemed the millionth time that year.

The boy that followed after the redhead had turquoise eyes and long white hair, which made IA doubt his gender for a moment, but after a while it did seem more like a boy – after all, Len was a boy, wasn't he? IA could almost hear the indignant wail of _"I am_ _ **NOT**_ _a shota!"_ that would've followed and almost giggled. A deep voice followed and IA recognised the weird style of Gakupo coming into the room – he was one of the few Vocaloids that IA remembered the name of without actually meeting them. He came in mumbling something about the girl being noisy, but IA was surprised to see Luka demonstrate some very skilful martial arts techniques when she landed a punch smack in the centre of his face. A loud cry broke from the man as he wailed "What the hell was that for?!"

"For coming here, baka! Didn't I tell you to stay away from my room?"

"I thought that was only temporary!"

"I meant _forever_ ," Luka had started growling ferociously, and for a second IA pictured them as two dogs fighting over a bone – wow, IA was officially a Vocaloid, wasn't she?

Rin and Len made catcalls to break the growling silence, "they _liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike_ each other~!" The couple they were teasing suddenly blushed and snapped back, "YOU CAN TALK!" That left an awkward silence of two couples blushing. The only sound that could be heard was the furious _tap-tap-tap_ of Neru glued to her phone.

The silence was broken by the redhead asking why they were all really quiet, which set everyone back on the path to Gumi's birthday preparations. Apparently the redhead was a girl named Miki, a Vocaloid made to be like a real robot, and the white-haired shy boy was called Piko – Miku had told IA that the two were practically inseparable, whether it was because Piko was too shy to do things on his own or whether it was an R&L thing. Eventually Yukari, Teto, Rin and Len stopped playing Mario Kart (yes, that was the game they were playing) and helped with the plans. Miku and Rin suggested they have a special event where they call Gumi to the stage to sing, that was when Luka had to sort people into groups, as everyone wanted to do everything at once. There were three groups: the ones who chose the decorations, those who chose what they'd wear, and finally those who organised the live part. IA was in the last group along with Miku, Rin, Len and Yukari; Luka was helping with the other two groups just to keep an eye on them, as she trusted Miku not to act like a fool on such an important occasion. IA felt for the first time just how much respect they all had for this Gumi lady. IA had listened to a few Gumi songs and suggested the first one that came to mind: _Matryoshka_. Len then suggested _HAPPY SYNTHESIZER_ , followed by Miku suggesting _Mozaik Role_ , and Rin finally suggesting _1, 2 Fanclub_. IA thought any more than four songs would be too much, personally, the others agreeing. Soon the other groups were done with planning too, all that was left being a night's work of getting the stage, costumes and decorations ready.

* * *

By 11:00pm they were just about ready, having tried on their outfits, seen to the decorations, and practised parts of songs on the live stage. The Vocaloids got what little sleep they could, waking up at seven to decide who would get Gumi and find suitable hiding places. Naturally, they just _had_ to pick IA. The white-haired singer was wearing a simple white dress which had a line of frills down the left side, a snazzy dark purple belt, her signature collar (she refused to take it off, she felt it was special to her somehow), long white boots with bright pink laces and white gloves with black zebra patterns on them. She followed the directions Miku had given her towards Gumi's room.  
She arrived at a door similar to all the others, but with light green stripes on.

She knocked on the door, a realistic voice replying, "Who is it?"

 _Good, she doesn't remember it's her birthday_ , IA thought.

"I'm a new V3, IA, Miku asked me to bring you down for something," she tried to sound casual, and it seemed to be working as Gumi showed no signs of suspicion.

"Oh, you know Miku? So what's it about?"

"She says it's a secret, but I can take you there. Wanna come? She says this secret is amazing," IA saw a spark of interest in Gumi, as she told IA to wait there whilst she got her clothes on – she was currently wearing her pyjamas.

Gumi came out in her normal outfit, which was orange and yellow, and told IA to lead the way. IA tried to hide her grin as she walked along the corridors to the room where the surprise celebration was held. The white-haired singe opened the door, revealing a pitch black room. At first Gumi was confused, but as soon as she stepped in the lights flashed on and the people who'd helped get set up cheered, "Happy 4th Birthday, Gumi-chan!"

IA noticed a childishly painted sign saying those exact words hung up on the wall, too, and couldn't help but smile and join in with the cheering and merriment along with the rest. There was a buffet on the table, which had already been sabotaged by Kaito, Miku and Teto, whereas a few of the other girls were congratulating Gumi such as Rin and Neru – who had miraculously left her phone – but others seemed to be getting out shapes wrapped in colourful paper; that was when IA realised she hadn't actually gotten Gumi a present, as she'd only had a day's notice.

Miki and Piko were helping each other carry a large package over to the green-haired Vocaloid, Len was calling Rin over to get their presents as well, Luka seemed to be off somewhere else (probably checking the stage), Meiko and Haku were _already_ drunk, and even Gakupo had gotten a present for Gumi.

 _If only someone like Luka were here!_ IA pleaded to no-one in particular, as her senpai (or rather, _reliable_ senpai) would know what she should do. IA was so busy trying to figure out a solution, she didn't realise the birthday girl coming up to her from behind.

"Hi, it's IA, right?"

" Gah! Oh, um, Gumi? I'm sorry, I didn't see you there, I was just thinking about the fact that I…" She trailed off, Gumi nodding in understanding.

"It's fine, Neru told me you'd only had a day to prepare."

"Really? Wow, give Neru my thanks- Wait, NERU ACTUALLY PAYS ATTENTION?!"

…

An awkward silence filled the room, along with Neru's golden eyes glaring at IA's sky blue ones. The white-haired Vocaloid mouthed an apology, and Neru's sarcastic nodding of her head signalled the rest to go about their business again. Gumi laughed at the whole scene, IA staring at her, not seeing what was funny.

Gumi finally calmed down and started to explain, "Well, I had another birthday party like this a while back – it was my 2nd birthday, actually – and there was this moment where Gakupo said this comment that got Luka all riled up, and it took all of us together to break them up! Hey, that was around the time when they both became complete tsunderes towards each other,"

She giggled again, IA vividly imagining the unstoppable fury of Luka and Rin, Len, Kaito, Miku and Gumi struggling to break them apart, Miki laughing at the scene in the background, Piko hiding behind her, Neru idly tapping at her phone, maybe even taking a video, Teto cheering the others on and Meiko and Haku cheering Gakupo and Luka on instead.

Once everyone had given their presents to Gumi, the curtains behind them suddenly spread open, revealing a pink-haired lady in a white and light blue dress calling to the other Vocaloids with a microphone in her hands: Megurine Luka.

"Hai, hai, settle down! Now may I please have your attention? Good. To celebrate Gumi's 4th birthday, we had an idea to perform six songs with Gumi, three being sang with others, one a solo. So, first up is _Matryoshka_ by Miku and Gumi!"

Miku dragged Gumi up to the stage, the latter still trying to make sense of Luka's words. As the two arrived on stage there was a flash of zeros and ones, then the two were suddenly in brightly coloured hoodies and had contacts that made their eyes look like they were filled with madness.

IA had never experienced a live performance before, be it performed by others or herself. She was in complete and total awe at how coordinated their moves were, and how the screen in the background changed with the theme of the music. Next, Rin was called to the stage as Miku walked off, Gumi and Rin switching into very authentic Chinese-style cloaks as the first gongs in the music to _1, 2 Fanclub_ sounded. The third song was a little different though, as Luka walked up to Gumi in different clothes. She had green fluffy headphones on with a white jacket, a pink shirt with white Polkka dot patterns, a black skirt and black boots. Gumi changed into a similar costume, and IA suddenly recognised that they were the outfits to _HAPPY SYNTHESIZER_ by Gumi and Luka. The live performance ended with Gumi changing into casual clothes and singing _Mozaik Role_ , one of IA's personal favourites, as it was definitely an amazing song with a killer beat and chorus.

The night was long, filled with celebrations, fun games, eating, opening gifts, more eating, little competitions, people bickering like old married couples (you know who IA was thinking of), oh, and did I mention eating? Yeah, it was a good thing they were androids or they'd all be the size of Totoro by the time the party finished.

Yeah. That was an amazing day.

* * *

 **A/N Okay, so if you don't get it 'senpai' is Japanese for upperclassman, but it's not rude, okay?! Like, even though in some anime the guys are like "there's this hot senpai blah, blah, blah…" but I'm not using it in that way! IA saying "Luka-senpai" only means that she respects her as an elder (well, not that Luka's ancient, but ya know!) Oh, and Totoro is a really cute (but huge) troll-thingie from a traditional Japanese tale, WATCH THE GHIBLI FILM. Oh, and the whole thing about Gakupo and Luka is based off this cute song called _Go Google It_ , AKA _ggrks_**


	7. Otaku

**A/N Hey guys,**

 **Since I have a little spare time on my hands between revising and practising my instruments etc., I thought I'd give you something a little extra before I leave for about a month or so.**

 **Hence, this bonus chapter!**

* * *

Bonus ~ Otaku

One fateful day a few weeks after Gumi's birthday, Rin and Miku popped over to IA's room with a sudden request (or more like _order_ ): "Will you watch some anime with us?"

IA's immediate reply was a straight-faced 'no', to which the two girls responded with puppy dog eyes and fake tears (though Miku's seemed unusually real for a robot…). It didn't take much to persuade her though, since a Skype from a deviously smiling Luka changed IA's made in an instant.

Yeah. _Nobody_ wants to see an angry Luka.

In the end, IA was dragged by a pair of merrily singing Vocaloids that finally got their way. She let herself go a bit, forgetting about the practising she needed to get along with, and wondered what they would be watching…

* * *

The only flaw with Miku's 'Anime Night' was that everyone ended up arguing over what to watch: Miku was dead set on watching _Angel Beats!_ ; Rin wanted _No Game No Life_ ; Gumi suggested _Death Note_ ; Len complained that it was too old and said _Noragami_ ; Yukari brought _Mirai Nikki_ to the party; Luka said that was too explicit and placed the first volume of _Sword Art Online_ on the table – now nobody needs to guess _that_ reaction.

Miki then continued with _Kill la Kill_ , Piko quelling that temptation of fan service with _Brotherhood,_ for some reason Gakupo suggested _Highschool DxD_ without actually knowing what it was (you don't really wanna), Kaito dismissing all the choices over his of _Tokyo Ghoul_. IA face-palmed: this was going absolutely nowhere. She quite fancied watching _Assassination Classroom_ , but knew the others would beg to differ.

Instead, she rage quit and left the room in a huff.

* * *

Yukari crept out of the room after her best friend and tapped her shoulder, the rest of her body tucked into the side of the corridor. Her crystal blue gaze met her friend as she took a long, deep sigh.

She moaned, "I wish we all didn't have to argue like this over such a silly thing,"

"What do you expect? This is Vocaloid we're talking about." She looked over at her friend and nudged her, "So, what do you wanna watch?"

"Huh?" IA blushed, now thinking her choice was stupid, "I kinda wanted to watch _Assassination Classroom_ …"

"Eh?!"

IA looked down at the floor, "I knew it, it was a rubbish idea…"  
"No, no, no! Not at all! I just… I didn't know you were into such badass anime, IA," She smiled. After a while she lifted her friend to stand up. Yukari suggested an idea, one that would work out for everybody, IA nodding in reply.

"Yosh, let's do that!"

The two returned with three different anime in their hands which they threw onto the table with vicious glares. IA handled the persuading whilst Yukari did the glaring, her game avatar all of a sudden not too far from the real thing.

"Listen up, people, we got three options," She lifted each Blu-ray up as she spoke, "For those who want to enjoy an amazing anime that never gets old and is amazing, we have Madoka Magica; for those who want something recent with a famous name, we have Seraph of the End; for those who wanna have a laugh at the latest well-known parody, we have One-Punch Man."

Yukari continued, "As you can see, we've covered a range of topics, but they all have one thing in common:" She paused for effect, " _Badass-ness_ ,"

With that, everyone began to vote. Maybe because they all wanted to laugh off their earlier argument, One-Punch Man won. In the end, everyone got over it, their argument now only a tease to others. And, besides…

Who doesn't love seeing Saitama kick some ass?!

* * *

 **A/N I'm sorry… I had to… uwu**

 **Yeah, this is kinda all the anime I've watched (I REGRET HS DXD THO) but my favourites are probably Brotherhood, Assassination Classroom, One-Punch Man, Tokyo Ghoul, Noragami and Madoka Magica. Yes, that is in order most to least, but I love loads of other stuff too (a top 10 really isn't that big… you find that out from the amount of Vocaloid songs you begin to like '(-_-))**

 **But still, I hope you enjoyed that (I laughed my head off at the SAO thing, hope u did too)**

 **Probably won't be seeing you in a while, but bye for now~ (^^)/**

 **EDIT:**

 **I HAVE A BREAK!**

 **But yeah. I came to say SORRY! I FORGOT THIS WAS 2012! It's just... so many great anime are from 2014 and such... uwu**

 **Maybe you could imagine just this one as in the present? ^^'**


	8. Konoha

**A/N I have some spare time, and I finished this a while ago, so I can post it now!**

 **I hate revising... it takes too long -_-**

 **But ya gotta do it, so I'll slap myself and keep going!**

 **Anyways, hope you enjoy this one! (again, sorry if stuff doesn't end up quite in order...)**

* * *

Seven ~ Konoha

As it turns out the next song in the Kagerou Project was actually already out, since it was meant to be _Headphone Actor_ , one of IA's first hits as it was a demo song. The next song was a long-awaited one named _Kagerou Daze_ , practically the theme of the series, as the main story was based around that song, and then the next time Miku and IA arrived in the studio JIN was smiling at them both in a this-one's-gonna-kick-ass sort of way. Yes, the long-awaited glory: _Konoha's State of the World_. This song introduced a new main character – Konoha, as in the name – who was there when the whole scene of Kagerou Daze happened, but he couldn't do anything about it. Just as Ene was a recreation of Takane, Konoha was a recreation of Haruka.

-But, _obviously_ , that wasn't what was special about it.

Ohhhhhhhhh yeah, Miku and IA were gonna sing together~! The song was fast-paced with a high BPM and high notes that would be difficult for any other Vocaloid to reach – after all, Miku was built to reach the high notes and IA specialises in the high and low notes (though, even though she hated to admit it, she was a little shaky in the middle octave). JIN's co-workers, Sidu and Wannyanpu, designed the characters, and so Miku and IA's current master brought out a few sketches drawn by them and computer models that'd been printed out.

The first thing IA noticed was, "Hey, doesn't he look a little like Len?"

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"

"Miku. I thought I specifically told you not to screech that high," JIN calmly reminded the teal-haired superstar as she blushed. When Miku felt they were out of the woods, she sighed a long and hefty sigh, like she was fed up of having to explain stuff to others – there'd been a few more V3s since IA, including a Miku V3, so most of Miku's time had been spent with famous artists thinking about purchasing a Miku V3.

"Konoha does not look like Len. For starters, he has red eyes, plus weird red scaly-mark thingamajigs on his cheek, and…" IA froze as the door opened and Luka, Gumi, Rin, Len and two other Vocaloids she didn't recognise walk into the room.

Yeah, they'd heard, alright!

Rin was epically failing at trying to hide her laughter, Gumi was anticipating the worst, even Luka was smiling, and the other two just seemed… confused. IA immediately guessed they were V3s. Oh, and Len's face was red with anger. Totally normal. Well, IA guessed they _were_ Vocaloids, who were practically anime characters, and in every anime IA had seen (correction: been _forced_ to see) every anime character had some form of mental issue.

"Oh! How could I forget the most obvious one?! Konoha's, like, _way_ taller than Len," she laughed. L.A.U.G.H.E.D.

 _Oh shit_ , IA's soul almost attempted to leave her body as Len broke into a fit of rage as Gumi sighed, Rin and Luka laughed outright, and the other two backed up a bit, which was probably more funny than Miku's ignorance or Len's outburst – _backing away from an angry banana-boy, ne? Cool._

* * *

After everyone finally calmed down, IA pointed out that she only ever mentioned the similarities because she claimed their hairstyle was similar and that Konoha had that same childish face. Then came the next argument: whose turn it was in the studio. Yeah, no-one really noticed JIN quietly sneak out of the room through the backdoor apart from IA, which meant that Miku kept arguing for no reason – but for everyone else's sakes, IA didn't mention it. Miku could be a little hasty at times. After a heated argument between Luka and Miku, IA thought she heard the first letter of her name being called out over a very, _very_ long note.

 _"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII_ …"

IA looked out through the door, not bothering to stop Miku and Luka (who were now battling each other by singing the ' _Anything You Can do I Can do Better_ ' song).

"… _IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA_ …"

IA glimpsed a black, purple and pink hoodie and a face with purple hair rushing towards her animatedly.

"… _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"_

Yukari gasped for a large breath of air as she'd apparently ran from the top floor of the opposite side of the building to here, one of the other building's lowest floors. IA felt truly sorry for her.

Then a whole load of syllables escaped her best friend's mouth so quick it sounded like she was singing _The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku_ ; IA asked Yukari to repeat it slower. She took another large breath and spoke, but this time slower, "IA, it's super amazing, we're gonna duet together! This person's making a song which features both of us! I know it's a bit sudden, but she wants us to make the song ready for Saturday,"

"Saturday?! But that's in just two days! Even the songs in the Kagerou Project take longer time to make than that!"

This meant that IA and Yukari had to run all the way back to one of the highest floors in the opposite building, from one of the lowest floors in the other building. There were two producers in the studio, luckily there were two beds as well. The names of their new masters were Sayo and Ika Musume Hunter (who they could just call Ika). The name of the song was set to be in Roman letters: _RENTICA_. The pair of Vocaloids soon realised it was only due in two days because they barely sang in it (two whole minutes of the song were instrumental!) which put their hopes down slightly, but at least they could sing together.

After hours of continuous practise of both the song and the choreography, they'd almost got it perfect. Yes, they didn't duet as well as other Vocaloids (but who could sing together as well as Rin and Len, for Creators' sake?!), but the whole song still went together really well. That was when IA remembered she'd wanted to meet the two new Vocaloids that had interrupted her and Miku's session earlier, the man and the lady. She promised herself that she'd ask the others about it soon.

* * *

The song was released two days afterwards, just as Sayo and Ika had said. It was a pretty big hit, but didn't last as long as other songs.

"Ah, well!" Yukari and IA would laugh as they looked at the views of others songs around that time and compared them with _RENTICA_.

The latest Kagerou Project song, however, was a much bigger hit, but nowhere near as big as stuff like _Kagerou Daze_ or _Kisaragi Attention_ , but it was fun for IA to sing with Miku in _Konoha's State of the World_. At the last practise IA had asked Miku about the two new V3s, the teal-haired girl saying that the man was called VY2, code-named Yuma, and the lady was VY1, code-named Mizki. She also said that their human forms were fanmade, as the only thing that originally represented VY2 was a katana, VY1's being a traditional Japanese fan.

As one of the most recent V3s, IA felt like she should introduce them a bit more, as she was completely and totally lost when she was first created.

Yeah. She was gonna help.

* * *

 **A/N Okay! So, I literally only just remembered about _RENTICA_ so I squeezed it on (lol but Len's lil temper… reminds me of Ed XD) **

**Okay, so... I have no idea where to put the friendship between Yuka and IA, but it'll probably be in about... four or five chapters because I have the next few planned out already.**

 **And for those who don't like banana+orange...**

 **WARNING: the next chap contains MAJOR LENRIN! (but it's only short and practically nothing happens in it so u can skip it if u must)**

 **Bye!**


	9. Awkward

**A/N I'M ALIVE!**

 ***coughs* I sincerely apologise for being lazy this past week, but I was on holiday before that, and had lots of stuff to do before that. -I'm so guilty of watching anime instead of updating T.T You may decide the punishment!**

 **I'll post two chapters today though! (maybe I should just do that all the time...)**

 **(Since I can't remember who I thanked and who I haven't yet,) Thank you to all those who posted reviews! ilovevocaloid93, Anisademongirl, devil or angle, Vocaloidlover, Jayson Okazaki, and Mochacho! \\(^^)/**

 **-Back to business: This chapter was mainly for my enjoyment, since I haven't had any Rin/Len in a while, and the only thing that happens apart from that is a little character build up on Mizki and Yuma.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **(But I can't figure out whether Ah, It's a Wonderful Cat's Life was out in 2011 or 2012... I get confused . )**

* * *

Eight ~ Awkward

IA soon noticed things getting icky between Gumi, Rin and Len (well, Gumi wasn't really bothered, but the problem involved her) due to Nem's latest song: _Ah, It's a Wonderful Cat's Life_. IA couldn't disagree with the fact it was a good song, she just didn't like the fact it caused all this mess. Apparently, IA had heard from Miku it was implied Len and Gumi, but nothing really happened in the PV, yet it still had an effect on the Kagamines.

Anyways, enough about Rin and Len's love life (because whenever IA thought about them she felt a weird feeling to have someone close too) and back to business; Boss had told IA to introduce Mizki and Yuma around, exactly what she'd been planning to do anyways. She'd now become pretty good friends with them, and the two had opened up a bit as well.

Recently IA had received news that a new Vocaloid of her genre would be released in a few years, named ONE, the second of the Aria on the Planetes androids and IA was looking forward to a new buddy. Oh, and they'd finished the first part of the Kagerou Project a little while ago and were going to start the second album soon, but the next few sessions were set just to be planning of the story and little details to fashion the songs out of.

It was at a session where Miku and IA were planning the main bad guy, who they decided would look freakishly like Konoha, just wearing black instead of white, who was connected to Marie since he was themed around snakes. JIN thought the song would suit IA's voice better, since he wanted a low, terrifying yet mesmerising, voice to add to the evilness of the main baddie. And, of course, IA could go lower than Miku.

It was when they were further planning the story of the bad guy when IA heard a 'blip!' coming from Miku. The white-haired Vocaloid expected trouble, and trouble she got, as the teal-haired girl squealed, "It's a code yellow, code yellow!"

"Code what now?" but IA had a feeling she knew the answer to that.

"It's Kaito! He sent me the code yellow! We have to get to where he is now!"

"Wait, why has Kaito-?!" Her words were cut off by Miku literally dragging IA down the stairs at the speed of light. Meanwhile, JIN sipped at his drink, quietly mumbling to himself about how messed up these Vocaloids were.

* * *

When the two arrived Kaito, Meiko and Luka were already there, seemingly peeping out through a doorway to one of the many studios in the building. Luka had to hastily cover Miku's squealing mouth as she saw the totally kawaii scene before her. IA looked around the corner to see Rin and Len, together again after what seemed like years of awkwardness!

Gumi soon came around the corner asking what was going on, Miku explaining to Gumi so quickly and quietly that IA had no idea how it was possible for Gumi to understand what she'd just said – but somehow, she did. Practically a minute later, Mizki and Yuma came down, saying that they'd reserved this studio, but caught on quickly as to what was happening.

Rin and Len were standing in the room, talking quietly to each other, Miku literally placing a megaphone to her head in a failing attempt to hear their soft mumbles. IA felt a little sorry for Kaito, as he was being squished by Meiko and Miku from both sides, definitely _not_ looking comfortable.

IA's heart almost stopped when she saw Rin close her eyes with a blush and Len leaning in, closer and closer…

...until he literally broke every Vocaloids' ear drums who were currently spying on them.

"DON'T YOU KNOW THE MEANING OF SOMETHING CALLED **_PRIVACY_**?!"

And the door slammed shut.

And that was when Yuma decided to say the most childish, stupid and, well, plainly boyish thing ever, "So… Are those two a couple or something?"

And IA smacked him on the head.

* * *

 **A/N Only short, mainly for fun, hope you enjoyed it.**

 **The Lenrin scene was based off my favourite fanart for this couple:**

516791

 **-Paste that into the URL bar and it'll probably (hopefully) come up ^^**

 **ONTO ZE NEXT CRUSADE!**


	10. Hyper

**A/N Another one!**

 **Since It's summer time~~~~**

 **(MIKU)**

 **Thank you if you've read this far! From now on I'll try to post a bit more!**

* * *

Nine ~ Hyper

The next time IA woke up after charging through the night she was met a by a purple-haired girl, "IA, you seriously need to get up earlier than this from now on or you'll miss out on the event,"

"Wait, what event?!"

Another voice replied, "Apparently it's Miku's birthday,"

"I would've thought you knew everyone's birthdays by _now_ ," IA thought those voices sounded like Yuma and Mizki's – wait, how come they found out before she did?! This was one of the rare moments when IA really wished she'd listened to Teto's gossip for once.

Yukari literally dragged IA out of the room ( _dragged once again!_ ) but, unfortunately, Miki was there and forced Yukari to get a move on, so in the end she had to help drag IA across the floor even quicker than Miku had, and the redhead did not do it gently.

* * *

When they arrived, Gakupo and Luka were giving each other glares as they got the preparations ready (but IA thought it looked a bit more like eye sex in her P.O.V…), apparently Rin and Len had gone to slow Miku down, Gumi was getting the stage set up, Piko stuck like glue to Miki (as always), Yukari was sorting out gifts and Yuma and Mizki were calling IA to come over to them.

Mizki spoke first, "IA, we were wondering if you could help us a little, we haven't really had much notice for this event,"

"Yeah, that seems the case with most things in this hellhole," IA mumbled half-heartedly. That was when Len slammed the door shut, panting.

"Okay, I think Rin's got her attention for now, she shouldn't suspect anything if we casually distract her for the next week before her birthday,"

"Wait, it's _next_ week?!" the trio of V3s asked in unison, Miki replying with a 'duh~'.

IA found out that it was in roughly a week, as Miku's birthday was on the 31st of August, and it was the 25th. Kaito came in two hours later with dozens of gifts, Len endlessly teasing him about it throughout the day. They each decided it would be more fun to keep each of their gifts to Miku a secret until the day she opened them.

Gumi eventually came down from the stage setup to practise vocals with the others, as they would all sing a song composed by Mitchie M called _Birthday Song for Miku_ , originally sang only by Kaito, Meiko, Luka, Rin and Len, but the others decided it would be more fun to join in with the whole song.

The three troublesome UTAUloids came down soon after, bringing gifts of various sizes, but Haku's was mysteriously shaped like a bottle of sake… A few others that IA didn't recognise came in afterwards as well, a blonde with a deep, mature voice (who IA later knew as Lily), A very formal-looking man with what looked to be his younger sister (Kiyoteru and Yuuki), an adorable little blonde sailor boy who came in straight afterwards (that was Oliver), a foreign-looking blonde with cat ears (SeeU, apparently Korean), a redhead who looked a bit like a vampire (Cul, but she wasn't a vampire) and a short girl with strawberry hair and cat mittens (Iroha).

That was when IA suddenly realised why she had that sinking feeling: she hadn't bought a present for Miku.

"Shiiiiiiiit,"

"Language, IA," Luka pinched IA's cheek as the albino started biting her nails, thinking of what gift she could possibly get her friend.

At that point she felt a tap on her shoulder, expecting to see Luka asking if she was alright or Piko asking if he could hide behind her or something (what? Miki could be pretty scary as a stalker sometimes… Like, as in, _Yuno_ scary…). Instead, she saw Yuma.

"Umm, I forgot to get a present too,"

"Huh? But I thought you and Mizki already got yours since you knew!"

"Well, Mizki got one, but I never did, but I have no idea where the nearest shopping centre is and Boss has disabled our bank accounts for now…"  
"Oh, I forgot; you're a newbie, so you need a guide everywhere you go," She stared at him, wondering if Rin and Len had got a present yet…

She didn't really know why she was trying to avoid being a guide – after all, she wanted to help the two get to grips with their life. Then she realised it. She was willing to help the _two_. If she went with just Yuma, it might look like they were on a… she blushed abruptly.

"Umm, why don't you ask someone like Luka or Rin and Len? I mean, they probably know the area better than me,"

"But you do know the area, right?"

"Umm…" She stopped blushing and sighed, "Fine, I'll take you."

* * *

She stared at her friend in the shops, a look of absolute dread on her face. _Well, I guess I know what it feels like to be in Momo's shoes, I guess…_ She almost laughed at the irony of her song. Yuma found something for Miku, eventually, but IA was a little hurt when he didn't show it to her – I mean, she did agree to bring him there and everything, so – but he insisted to keep it a secret like the others.

She sighed a long and hefty breath when she went to find something for her friend. She found it when she passed by a music store, remembering a song by Rin and Len called _Suki Kirai_ (one that suited them perfectly, to IA, at least,) and no, it wasn't the jewellery Len got Rin near the end of the song – it was actually the part where Len sang his chorus and played the guitar (that bit was absolutely hilarious since Rin was just looking at a butterfly whilst he was freaking out on the guitar). No, no, no! She wouldn't play the guitar! (She hadn't been programmed to do that yet.) She would give the gift to Miku and wander off doing something else before Miku started freaking out on it.

Yeah, that sounds like on hell of a plan!

* * *

The day finally came, where Kaito brought Miku into the room, the lights turned on and her turquoise eyes sparkled at the massive greeting, everybody singing _Birthday Song for Miku!_

…But the tealette wasn't too interested in the others, more like the presents, which she dived for immediately.

Not to soon Miku and the two usuals were drunk, after Miku opened the present shaped like a sake bottle, most others having gotten her special edition merchandise from anime and manga or jewellery, so Miku snapped out of her drunken daze when she opened the guitar. IA sighed, deciding it was time for her to go, her snow-white hair flicking as she turned, until Miku played the beginning of _Kagerou Daze_ , Rin having decided to be her backing guitar.

IA grinned, turning around again to bring the party by mixing _Kagerou Daze_ with _Konoha's State of the World_ , and another tune –one she made up out of her head…

 _"_ _Shounen shoujo mae o muku kureru enten sae kibouron datte_

 _"TSUREMODOSE" "TSUREMODOSE"_

 _Mikazuki ga akaku moeagaru_

 _Saa saa, KOODO o zero de kizame_

 _Souzouryoku no sotogawa no sekai e OOBAA na kuusou sensen e"_

...Later, that song became known as _Children Record_ , one of IA's greatest hits.

* * *

 **A/N KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I frickin' love _Children Record_ and the PV of _Suki Kirai_ , as well as the guitar opening of _Kagerou Daze_! **

**I mean, the Kagerou Project rocks (literally) and _Suki Kirai_ has the cutest PV ever! (Maybe not as cute as _Rockbell_ , but y'know, basically any Honeyworks song is kawaii)**

 **I tried (?) doing a little Yuma/IA in this one...**

 **TIME TO GO READ SOME FANFICS! -I-I mean, research!**

 **I'm gonna be typing now... so bye!**


	11. Live

**A/N Oh dear Yato, I haven't updated since summer...**

 **But there is more IA goodness to come!**

* * *

Ten ~ Live

IA woke up to a billion blings in her cyberbrain, all notifying her of the same thing: her first live performance. Apparently, JIN was hosting one with many different artists – including three songs from her: Children Record, Headphone Actor, and a new one they'd been working on, World Calling. She almost fainted – but, since she was a robot, she couldn't, so instead sent a trillion messages like wildfire to Yukari. She guessed her friend had given up on replying, since IA just kept rambling and rambling. The only thing she did say was: _Go ask Miku and Rin to teach you the guitar or something – don't ask me!_

So, the rising star went to the real stars for advice, getting a lot more than needed as Luka and Gumi were also there, all four of them pouncing on IA as soon as she entered.

"IA-chan~!"

"Hey, girl! Come to ask a few of us seniors for advice?"

"Like as in… advice on boys?"

"Seriously, Miku, she told me she hates Gakupo, isn't interested in Kaito, doesn't really know Piko and has a feeling that she scares Len for some reason… Which is true, I found out yesterday when IA glared at Len to get her the music sheet and he went like 'poof!' and gone."

IA laughed awkwardly at Rin's true statements whilst thinking of what to ask. Eventually, she threw away the script and just blurted out all her worries.

Miku blinked. "Umm… sorry, but…"

 _This is it. I've made a fool out of myself by asking_. _There must be a simple method to all this in a manual somewhere…_ IA clenched her eyes shut as she waited for the reply.

Instead, Miku made out awkwardly, "You see, when you're on the stage, all you have to do is act with the song, the programme does most of it for you unless you specifically ask for a special one where you control it. –But that's only for more experienced performers like us, sorry," She smiled, trying to cheer her friend up.

IA face-palmed. Of course there was a programme!

After banging her head on the table a few times, Luka showed her some older videos of live shows and IA felt a notion of what she was meant to do. Gumi whispered a suggestive compliment about the dancing she'd probably be doing which made her blush and run off quickly to the practise stage. Yukari was there with Mizki, talking her through the controls, until she saw her best friend walk into the studio.

"Hey, IA; come to practise, I assume?" She raised a brow as the rising star told her to put a sock in it.

Mizki played the backing track as Yukari uploaded the dance programme to IA's database. The music for Children Record started and she felt her body snap into position in a very uncomfortable way, but she sunk into it after a while…

* * *

IA was currently in the computer organising the concert, waiting for when she'd be called upon the stage anxiously. Her knees went back and forth tapping each other as she told herself a mantra for keeping calm and went through the list of things she needed to keep in mind. The time came when she appeared on the stage, looking around at the audience and blinking confusedly.

She was confused because she wasn't nervous.

And she wasn't nervous because she wasn't nervous either.

Instead… as she looked at all the hopeful faces and supporters, she felt a glow inside her core as she took a deep breath before the music kicked in.

At the end of each of her performances, the crowd cheered and clapped, louder each time as she got better. She arrived in her room both ecstatic at her outstanding performance and longing for her bed, as the live shows were obviously tiring. She sighed as she wondered how Miku could survive all those live shows lasting three hours, figuring she must charge herself in between.

* * *

The next day as she and Miku went to greet JIN in their studio again, he gave special praise to IA which made her blush and glow with pride in a cute way.

Miku pouted with fake jealousy, "Nee, nee, JIN-san, don't give her too much encouragement or she might screw up her idol career…"

"Don't jinx me, Miku!" IA poked her friend's cheek with a scowl.

They both laughed until JIN clapped his hands.

It was time to work on Outer Science, the next song in the Kagerou Project, about the main villain: Kuroha.

* * *

 **A/N We can all guess what the next one is about, right?**

 **(MY FAVE IA SONG, OUTER SCIENCE!)**


End file.
